This invention relates to an electronic coin inspecting apparatus capable of detecting the diameter, material or surface pattern of coins.
Accurate judgement of genuine and counterfeit coins is one of important problems for automatic dispensers and money exchange machines. In order to improve the accuracy of judgement, it is desirable to check all characteristics of coins (material, surface embossed pattern, outer diameter, etc.) so as to judge that the coins satisfying these characteristics are genuine. An electronic coin inspecting apparatus has recently been proposed wherein such characteristics as the material and the surface pattern are electronically examined. However, the diameter can be inspected only by mechanical means so that where various types of coins are to be inspected it is necessary to provide independent coin sorting passages for different diameters, thus complicating the construction and increasing the size of the apparatus.